No. 4.] COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING. 47 



profitable, while au interesting fact, has nothing more to 

 do with the question at issue than the price of gas. 



The last ])oint which I wish to discuss, and one which 

 is also largely a personal question, though there are some 

 general principles involved, is the matter of what crops to 

 grow in the orchard for the profit to be gotten out of the 

 crop, and not, as with cover crops, solely to benefit the or- 

 chard ; for, while the bearing orchard, of course, usea all 

 the lan<l and ])ays a j)rofit on it, or oiicjhi to, the young or- 

 chartl is for several years a source of out-go, and the land 

 ought to be jdanted to some crop which will yield a ])rofit, 

 and at the same time either directly benefit the orchard, or 

 at least not injui-c it. 



A crop to be satisfactory in an orchard must first of all 

 be a cultivated crop. I do not believe in either a hay crop 

 or a grain crop for an orchard, whether young or old. And 

 if the crop is to be cultivated, the more thorough cultivation 

 it requires and the more nearly its season for cultivating 

 corresponds to that of the orchard, the better. I am sure 

 that a cultivated crop is usually far better for the orchard 

 than if no crop is grown, for unfortunately the average man 

 will cultivate his annual crops when lie might neglect his 

 orchard. 



►Secondly, a crop to l»e entirely satisfactory ought not to 

 distui'b the soil late in the season, as, for example, in digging 

 a crop of late potatoes. If the crop grows late in the sea- 

 son, which is in itself no objection, but rather the reverse, 

 it ought to be something like cabbage or squash, which does 

 not disturb the soil when gathered. Of course this ob- 

 jectioTi can be overcome by planting the crop far enough 

 fr(tm the trees; but this solution has its own weak points, 

 as we lose the use of a lot of land which might just as well 

 be giving us a ])rofit. 



Fui'thermore, the croj) must also be scmiething which the 

 owner of the orchard can either use on the farm (as a crop 

 of turnips or mangels for stock feed), or else must be a 

 jM'ofitable crop to sell. 



The crops which Ave selected, having regard as far as 

 possible to the al)ove general principles, were beans, cab- 



